Coinbase made a rousing debut on Wall Street on Wednesday, with the digital currency exchange’s stock opening at $381, giving it a market value of $100 billion.
The company’s listing on a public stock exchange is seen by some as an inflection point for digital currencies.
Coinbase’s fortunes are seen as closely tied to Bitcoin, the most-popular cryptocurrency. Bitcoin has topped $63,000, up from $29,000 at the start of the year, and Coinbase said recently that its first-quarter revenue should total around $1.8 billion, exceeding its revenue for all of 2020.
Coinbase is making its initial public offering of stock with cryptocurrency chatter seemingly everywhere, even at the US Federal Reserve. It is being incorporated into business plans and accepted by major corporations like Tesla, PayPal and Visa.
“The Coinbase IPO is potentially a watershed event for the crypto industry and will be something the Street will be laser focused on to gauge investor appetite,’” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at wealth management firm Wedbush.
The stock opened at $381 per share, up 52.4 per cent from a reference price of $250 per share set on Tuesday.
It also surged as high as $429 in the early hours but came back down to its debut price.
There were 43 million verified Coinbase users in 2020, with 2.8 million making transactions monthly. Its revenue more than doubled to $1.14 billion last year and the company swung to a profit of $322.3 million after losing tens of millions in 2019.
When Coinbase filed papers with US regulators in February to go public, it said it would do so through a direct listing, which allows insiders and early investors to convert their stakes in the company into publicly traded stock.
Shares of Coinbase, which will be traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker "COIN", will attract investors who want to get into the cryptocurrency space in addition to, or without buying any coins at all, said Lule Demmissie, president of Ally Invest.
“It could also be a less volatile security than the coins themselves.”
Some Wall Street analysts project that Coinbase Global Inc could be valued at $100bn, based on private transactions of its shares. This week, Nasdaq gave the company a $250 reference price.
That would make it one of the top 100 biggest publicly traded US companies that will be far larger than the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.
The Coinbase hype went into overdrive last week when the company reported estimates of its first-quarter results, including about $1.8bn in revenue and net income between $730m and $800m.
Still, not everyone is convinced. David Trainer, chief executive of investment research firm New Constructs, said Coinbase has “little-to-no-chance of meeting the future profit expectations that are baked into its ridiculously high valuation".
Mr Trainer last week put a valuation on Coinbase closer to $18.9bn, arguing it will face more competition as the cryptocurrency market matures.
However, Mr Ives sees Coinbase as a window into the future.
“Coinbase is a foundational piece of the crypto ecosystem and is a barometer for the growing mainstream adoption of Bitcoin and crypto for the coming years,” he said.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
US households add $601bn of debt in 2019
American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.
Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.
In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.
The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.
"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.
Scorecard
Scotland 220
K Coetzer 95, J Siddique 3-49, R Mustafa 3-35
UAE 224-3 in 43,5 overs
C Suri 67, B Hameed 63 not out
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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The winners
Fiction
- ‘Amreekiya’ by Lena Mahmoud
- ‘As Good As True’ by Cheryl Reid
The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award
- ‘Syrian and Lebanese Patricios in Sao Paulo’ by Oswaldo Truzzi; translated by Ramon J Stern
- ‘The Sound of Listening’ by Philip Metres
The George Ellenbogen Poetry Award
- ‘Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance’ by Fady Joudah
Children/Young Adult
- ‘I’ve Loved You Since Forever’ by Hoda Kotb
Brief scores:
Toss: Kerala Knights, opted to fielf
Pakhtoons 109-5 (10 ov)
Fletcher 32; Lamichhane 3-17
Kerala Knights 110-2 (7.5 ov)
Morgan 46 not out, Stirling 40
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